Forgiveness

And be ye kind one to another. . .
forgiving one another even as God
for Christ's sake has forgiven you. Ephesians 4:32

Forgiveness-the act of giving up resentment or the desire to punish; the act of pardoning.

When Christ forgives us He erases the offensive deed from His memory. He deletes the error from existence. He washes away the stain. Never to bring it up to us again.

Paul tells us we should be forgiving toward one another in the same way. What would this mean to our society?
We wouldn’t have divisions in families. We wouldn’t have hard feelings among neighbors. Friendships would be deeper and longer lasting.

World-wide, the nations would be more willing to talk about their differences and concerns. We would not have divisions over issues of war. We might not have any homeless people. Our teenage pregnancy rate could be close to zero. Alcoholism would not be as rampant. The divorce rate wouldn’t be nearly as high.

I don’t want to sound like Pollyanna but all our divisive issues seem to stem from people or parties not being able to forgive one another.

“Be ye kind one to another”-is a command, a way of life, a display of one of the spiritual fruits.

“forgiving one another”-over-looking faults,loving another when they are unlovely, looking beyond one’s faults to their need.

“even as God” following His example

“for Christ's sake” because of Jesus

“hath forgiven you.” God forgives us when we ask Him. We are to do likewise when we are asked.